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Complications
By Mayo Clinic staffShigella infection usually clears up without complications, although it may take weeks or months before your bowel habits return to normal. However, severe, untreated dehydration can lead to shock and death. Chronically ill adults and children younger than 2 are at greatest risk.
Children are at greatest risk of other shigella infection complications, which may include:
- Seizures. Some children who run high fevers with a shigella infection have seizures. It's not known whether the convulsions are a result of the fever or the shigella infection itself. If your child has a seizure, contact your doctor immediately. Most seizures are brief, but if your child has one that lasts longer than five minutes or is accompanied by vomiting, problems with breathing or extreme sleepiness, get emergency medical attention immediately.
- Proctitis. The bacteria that cause shigellosis may also cause inflammation of the lining of the rectum.
- Rectal prolapse. In this condition, straining during bowel movements may cause the rectal mucous membrane, or lining, to move down or through the anus.
- Hemolytic uremic syndrome. This rare complication of shigella, more commonly caused by bacteria called Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7, can lead to a low red blood cell count (hemolytic anemia), low platelet count (thrombocytopenia) and acute kidney failure.
Other complications may include:
- Toxic megacolon. This rare complication occurs when your colon becomes paralyzed, preventing you from having a bowel movement or passing gas. Signs and symptoms include abdominal pain and swelling, fever and weakness. You might also become disoriented or groggy. If you don't receive treatment for toxic megacolon, your colon may rupture, causing peritonitis, a life-threatening condition requiring emergency surgery.
- Reiter syndrome. If you get shigellosis from subgroup B shigella, you may be at risk of Reiter syndrome, but only if you have a genetic predisposition. Reiter syndrome is a form of reactive arthritis, which develops in response to infection. Signs and symptoms of Reiter syndrome include joint pain and inflammation, usually in the ankles, knees, feet and hips. Symptoms may also include redness, itching and discharge in one or both eyes (conjunctivitis), and painful urination (urethritis).
